Michael Lerner

French nuclear tests irradiate an iguana into a giant monster that viciously attacks freighter ships in the Pacific Ocean. A team of experts, including Niko Tatopoulos, conclude that the oversized reptile is the culprit. Before long, the giant lizard is loose in Manhattan as the US military races to destroy the monster before it reproduces and it's spawn takes over the world.

The ultimate X-Men ensemble fights a war for the survival of the species across two time periods as they join forces with their younger selves in an epic battle that must change the past – to save our future.

It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith that she is leaving him. He scrambles to find a semblance of meaning as he loses control of nearly every aspect of his life.

When young Buddy falls into Santa's gift sack on Christmas Eve, he's transported back to the North Pole and raised as a toy-making elf by Santa's helpers. But as he grows into adulthood, he can't shake the nagging feeling that he doesn't belong. Buddy vows to visit Manhattan and find his real dad, a workaholic.

Being one of 101 takes its toll on Patch, who doesn't feel unique. When he's accidentally left behind on moving day, he meets his idol, Thunderbolt, who enlists him on a publicity campaign.

After she spends all her money, an evil enchantress queen schemes to marry a handsome, wealthy prince. There's just one problem - he's in love with a beautiful princess, Snow White. Now, joined by seven rebellious dwarves, Snow White launches an epic battle of good vs. evil...

The career and personal life of writer Lee are at a standstill, so he divorces his bashful wife, Robin, and dives into a new job as an entertainment journalist. His assignments take him to the swankiest corners of Manhattan, but as he jumps from one lavish party to another and engages in numerous empty romances, he starts to doubt the worth of his work. Meanwhile, top TV producer Tony falls for Robin and introduces her to the world of celebrity.

Ambitious television reporter Tim O'Hara stumbles upon a martian whose spaceship has accidentally crashed on Earth. Thinking this is his ticket to a Pulitzer Prize, Tim makes plans to expose the martian, who, posing as Tim's Uncle Martin, takes human form and has plans of his own. In fact, all of Tim's efforts to divulge the truth are systematically thwarted by the resourceful alien, who ultimately recruits Tim to help him repair his ship for a return to Mars.

Bullied by his siblings and nagged by his parents, 11-year-old Preston Waters is fed up with his family — especially their frugality. But he gets his chance to teach them a lesson when a money-laundering criminal nearly bulldozes Preston with his car and compensates the boy with a blank check. Preston makes the check out for $1 million and goes on a spending spree he'll never forget.

The sensuous wife of a lunch wagon proprietor and a rootless drifter begin a sordidly steamy affair and conspire to murder her Greek husband.

A week in the life of the exploited, child newspaper sellers in turn-of-the-century New York. When their publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, tries to squeeze a little more profit out of their labours, they organize a strike, only to be confronted with the Pulitzer's hard-ball tactics.

In the year 2022, a ruthless prison warden has created the ultimate solution for his most troublesome and violent inmates: Absolom, a secret jungle island where prisoners are abandoned and left to die. But Marine Captain John Robbins, convicted of murdering a commanding officer, is determined to escape the island in order to reveal the truth behind his murderous actions and clear his name.

Damien Thorn is dead, but his prophecy is reborn in a mysterious girl named Delia, who is adopted by two attorneys.

A renowned New York playwright is enticed to California to write for the movies and discovers the hellish truth of Hollywood.

'Sugar' Ray is the owner of an illegal casino and must contend with the pressure of vicious gangsters and corrupt police who want to see him go out of business. In the world of organised crime and police corruption in the 1920s, any dastardly trick is fair.

Two untalented singers are mistaken for a pair of major league safe crackers in Providence, Rhode Island. The two are pressed into service by the local hoodlums and quickly find themselves in conflict with their professional colleagues. Romantic interest is added by the daughter of the underworld leader who won't date the men she knows are gangsters.

Starting from childhood attempts at illustration, the protagonist pursues his true obsession to art school. But as he learns how the art world really works, he finds that he must adapt his vision to the reality that confronts him.

An unhappy young couple visit the infamous Kellogg spa in Battle Creek, Michigan while a young hustler tries get into the breakfast-cereal business and compete against John Kellogg's corn flakes.

A New York City beautician is mistakenly hired as the school teacher for the children of the president of a small Eastern European country.

Brad Sexton and his wife, Caroline, are wealthy New Yorkers with both marital and financial problems. The latter issue becomes a pressing matter when they discover that their accountant has embezzled millions and pinned the blame on them. Forced to go on the lam, Brad and Caroline end up in an Amish area of Pennsylvania and decide to pose as members of the religious group to evade the IRS. As the two adapt to the simple Amish lifestyle, they begin to reconnect.

Buck Weaver and Hap Felsch are young idealistic players on the Chicago White Sox, a pennant-winning team owned by Charles Comiskey - a penny-pinching, hands-on manager who underpays his players and treats them with disdain. And when gamblers and hustlers discover that Comiskey's demoralized players are ripe for a money-making scheme, one by one the team members agree to throw the World Series. But when the White Sox are defeated, a couple of sports writers smell a fix and a national scandal explodes, ripping the cover off America's favorite pastime.

When Andrew Sterling, a successful black urbanite writer, buys a vacation home on a resort in New England the police mistake him for a burglar. After surrounding his home with armed men, Chief Tolliver realizes his mistake and to avoid the bad publicity offers a thief in his jail, Amos Odell a deal.

Three youthful delinquents escape conviction for their crimes by teaming with the LAPD.

Aging screenwriter Felix Bonhoeffer has lived his life in two states of existence: in reality and his own interior world. While working on a murder mystery script, and unaware that his brain is on the verge of implosion, Felix is baffled when his characters start to appear in his life, and vice versa.

Ted Ryker is the top salesman in the New York office of a business machine company; the corporate stock lives by quarterly sales numbers, the competition is keen, and the economy may be in a downturn. Ted's company is marking time until a new product is ready – probably in a few months. Into the mix comes a new hire, a callow Midwesterner named Jamie, who's come East with his fiancée Belisa.

Flighty Emily "Jacks" Jackson works for the British edition of Vogue magazine. Rather than pursue a relationship, Jacks regularly hooks up with her devoted ex-boyfriend, James Wildstone, and lives with Peter Simon, a gay screenwriter. When Jacks meets Argentinian photographer's assistant Paolo Sarmiento, she assumes he is gay and tries to bring him and Peter together, unaware that Paolo is straight and in love with her.

Undead cop Matt Cordell rises from the grave, and is after the criminals who murdered him in prison.

Jeb Maynard is a patrolman guarding the U.S.-Mexican border, whose partner and buddy Scooter has just been murdered. Maynard knows that a smuggler of illegal aliens is responsible for Scooter's death, but the feds insist that drug dealers committed the crime.

When new kid in town Ed Wallis is given an assignment to interview an older person, he turns to his mysterious neighbor, Ashby Holt for help. That new connection leads to unexpected journeys for both of them, as Ashby – who turns out to be a retired CIA assassin – deals with a terminal prognosis, and Ed deals with adjusting to life with his newly single mom and developing relationship with a brainy classmate, Eloise.

A Dennis The Menace version of A Christmas Carol where Mr. Wilson plays his own version of Scrooge. While Dennis has problems of his own with the neighborhood bully, he does his best to try and give Mr. Wilson the Christmas Spirit. Dennis causes his usual damage and Mr. Wilson ends up breaking Dennis' spirit. An Angel of Christmas Past Present and Future steps in to help save Christmas for the Mitchells, the Wilsons, and everyone else.

Ralph Macchio, once a former teen idol, once on top the world in the 80s. Now he is a family man with a loving wife and the nicest man in Hollywood... that is the problem. Because he never once participated in a scandal he is not as popular as he used to be. Sick and tired of it, his wife stages an intervention with his former co stars and manager. They explain to him that in order to further his career he has to shed the nice guy routine and become the most hated man in America. With some inspiration by other scandalous celebrities such as Colin Farrell and Christian Bale; Macchio decides to partake in every scandal known to modern America. Will he succeed in his career or would he go too far?

A group of Internet "sensations" compete for a tv show. Parody of the Internet.

A powerful railroad executive, Dagny Taggart, struggles to keep her business alive while society is crumbling around her. Based on the 1957 novel by Ayn Rand.

An ophthalmologist's assistant with an unhealthy interest in human eyeballs goes on a killing spree to collect eyeballs for his overbearing mother's collection. Reality soon takes a bizarre turn, both for the characters and the audience.

Two old pals attend an old friends funeral and find there is more to his death than him being dead.

"Immigrant" is the coming of age story of Daanyik, a nine year-old Russian boy, whose family immigrates to the United States in the late nineteen-seventies to pursue the American Dream. Daanyik's childhood of pencil drawings and toy soldier battles in Moscow is interrupted overnight as he is hurled into the harsh reality of adulthood in New York City. Upon losing his father Deema, Daanyik and his mother, Meela, are left poor, alone and helpless in a foreign land. Out of desperation for survival, Meela begins a relationship with Tolik, an abusive man that may have had a hand in Deema's death. Daanyik finds himself trapped in a precarious web of torment brought on by his new stepfather, a lecherous Rabbi and a neighborhood bully. Drawing becomes his only source of comfort and catharsis. As his battles grow fiercer, Daanyik, at the tender age of nine, is left to overcome insurmountable odds to save himself and his mother from complete destruction.

Medium Sylvia Pickel and psychometrist Nick Deezy meet at a psychic research facility in New York. Not long after, they're contacted by Harry Buscafusco, who offers them $50,000 to find his lost son in South America, in the heart of Incan territory where they discover an ancient mystical secret, and each other.

When French beauty Noelle Page falls in love with American pilot Larry Douglas, she believes he'll marry her. Instead, he returns to the U.S and marries the sweet but naive Catherine. Even though Noelle has found a new lover, an affluent Greek named Constantin, and has started a great career as an actress, she vows revenge on her onetime lover. But once her plan is in motion, she and Larry fall in love and plot Catherine's death.

Centuries ago, under the sands of ancient Egypt, a Prince was buried and his tomb eternally cursed so that no man would ever again suffer from his evil ways. But hundreds of years later on a greedy search for treasure, a group of archaeologists break the cursed seal of the tomb. Every man vanishes without a trace, leaving behind only a log book, and a deadly warning of the legend of the bloodthirsty Talos.

When FBI Agent Zack Grant's partner is killed during a blown-up operation, he attempts to find the person responsible. Mafioso Frank Serlano believes Zack is responsible for his only son's death in the same operation and kidnaps Zack's son to hold as bait. The action gets wild when airline stewardess Mary is taken hostage to add what seems an another insurmountable problem for Zack. There appears to be no way out.

A young couple in a car exactly like Starsky's is killed by hitmen and word is out on the street that there's a contract out on Starsky and Hutch. This is a TV-pilot that was an ABC Movie of the Week and later turned into the TV-series.

When milkman Jimmy Connelly accidentally puts Britain's contender for the World title out of action, he is propelled from amateur boxer to the world stage and announced as the replacement contender for the championship fight.

A series of mysterious crimes threatens the existence of a new radio network.

Bill McKay is a candidate for the U.S. Senate from California. He has no hope of winning, so he is willing to tweak the establishment.

Cory Weissman is a college basketball player who suffers a devastating stroke. He perseveres to find new meaning in his life both on, and more importantly, off the court.

A dabbler-in-crime and his assistant hire an ex-police reporter to recover some stolen papers.

Friends, family, and lovers struggle to find love, forgiveness, and meaning in an almost war-torn world riddled with comedy and pathos.

The gay son of a conservative senator who is also the poster boy for his father's re-election unknowingly befriends a gay activist bent on destroying the hypocritical campaign.

A Bronx working girl is drawn into an elaborate extortion plot after being kidnapped by a gang of sophisticated con men who force her, because of her remarkable resemblance, to impersonate a wealthy socialite. Based on E.V. Cunningham's (Howard Fast's) novel, "Shirley."

In present day Detroit, where the influence of organized crime has diminished; one of the lasting crime syndicates begins to unravel when lies, mystery and betrayal devour the trust, which holds them together.

An airline pilot tries to balance two wives he has in two separate cities.

Alien beings, who settle in a small midwestern town, are disturbed by a young professor determined to rescue his daughter from their clutches.

A woman hires Rockford to discover if her father's death was homicide or suicide.

Lizzie Borden High's class of '72 are going through the motions at their tenth-year reunion, until deranged alum Walter Baylor, driven insane by a sadistic senior-year prank, escapes from the mental institution and crashes the party. When guests start getting bumped off, the other alumni, including snooty yacht salesman Bob Spinnaker, class tease Bunny Packard, and class zero Gary Nash, spring into action to uncover the culprit.

Sarah thinks making a movie is easy. With the guidance of her screenwriter uncle, she goes on a wild journey into the world of Hollywood where she meets crazy studio execs, insane producers and a gangster who agrees to finance her film – for a price…

A pastry boy and the son of a hair-piece mogul become involved in an arson scandal. Sergio is offered a bribe in exchange for taking the blame for the fire that destroys his workplace. Garet, the real arsonist, is apalled that someone else would try to take credit for his act of love. Before long, Sergio and Garet become entangled in a zany love-quadrangle involving Hattie and Stephanie. Written by Brian Whiting

A charming con-man navigates a complex life between his police chief father and mob boss uncle while struggling to leave his criminal past behind.

A New York cop becomes obsessed with finding his wife's rapist.

When a bag filled with money goes missing from a casino, the Hitman (Chris O'Donnell) must retrieve it. While he tracks the stash down, the bag changes hands numerous times, finding its way to the Drifter (Jeremy Davies) and the Waitress (Rachael Leigh Cook), among others. As the bag's journey continues, more characters, including the Cop (Michael Rapaport) and the Sheriff (Keith David), get drawn into the winding crime tale, and the search becomes increasingly desperate.

Bohemian Alex Morrison has just finished directing his first feature length movie. In its previews, the movie is considered a critical, artistic and surefire commercial success. As such, Alex seemingly has his choice of what his next project will be. As he makes the rounds both in the Hollywood community and European movie centers for ideas, he fantasizes about movie scenarios of those everyday situations he is in.

Defying orders to lay-off the case, two Los Angeles vice-squad cops go after a local mobster and use unorthodox methods to achieve results.

A tale of two hustlers trying to set up a big game.

An old school dad is as tough on his sons as his father is on him. On this night, however, one of the boys slips dad a dose of special, hallucinogenic ecstasy in order "to give him a new perspective."

First he seduced her. Then he made her a star. He was Johnny Hyde, 52-year-old agent, friend, lover. She was an unemployed starlet — destined to be America's greatest sex goddess. Theirs was a sizzling romance — torrid, touching, tragic.

Conflict erupts within a close-knit engine company of a big-city fire department when a black recruit and a bigoted white veteran clash during a wave of suspected arson in the ghetto. Pilot to the short-lived series that began a run in January 1974.

A medical student marries a millionaire's daughter but insists they live on the money he earns.

The life and times of silverscreen goddess Rita Hayworth.

When actor David Harbour finds lost footage of his father's disastrous televised stage play of a literary classic, he uncovers shocking family secrets.

Celebrated heart surgeon Thomas Vrain supports the research of an offbeat scientist who has invented an artificial heart. Against the advice of the Ethics Committee, Dr. Vrain decides to perform the first artificial heart transplant.

A police cover-up of the murder of two young women at a wild party is complicated by the possible faking of a story by an overzealous young reporter seeking instant newspaper stardom.

A young man from New Jersey comes to Los Angeles to visit his slightly crazy cousin and gets mistaken for a successful New York artist.

A parable of the Hollywood image-making industry told through a pastiche of narrative cliches.

The tragic true story of one of the worst cases of child abuse ever documented (in which a girl was locked in a room without social contact for nearly thirteen years) and what happened when she was finally rescued.

A time capsule of the L.A. comedy scene in the 1970s, "Diary of a Young Comic" casts Richard Lewis as a fictionalized version of himself - a young New York comic who comes out to Los Angeles to seek his fame and fortune.

When a photo-journalist vanishes while covering an African civil war, a roll of film holds the only clues to his disappearance. Following the trail found in the photos, a veteran reporter finds himself in the middle of events as they escalate into war, leaving him with two deadly and disastrous options...

The film follows two student cinematographers who, as the war approaches Moscow, refuse to be evacuated and instead volunteer to be front-line cameramen capturing the horrors of war and heroism of the soviet soldiers. At the same time, we witness another storyline taking place in the US. After the premiere screening of the already completed documentary “Moscow Strikes Back”, one of the members of the Academy Awards selection committee is trying to persuade his fellow colleagues to establish a new category of Best Documentary in the upcoming Oscars event.

A runaway teenage girl and a drifter rob a bank, hit the road to elude the Texas Rangers and find love on the run.

A talk-radio host, who specializes in abusing and insulting his audience, gets a call from a disturbed teenage girl who says she is going to commit suicide. After first encouraging her, he has a change of heart and frantically tries to get his listeners to help find the girl before she makes good on her threat.

Finding herself unable to cope with the divorce of her parents and the stress of daily life, 15-year-old Sarah Travis starts drinking in secret. At first, alcohol provides comfort and release. Then it sends her life spiraling out of control.

The most accurate portrait ever made of the events surrounding the Kennedy assassination and the subsequent assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald.

An ex-narc finds a journal written in code, leading to the whereabouts of a stash of stolen drugs.

Sparky Smith (Joe Mantegna) was manager of the Seattle Mariners until he had one too many shouting matches with the team's owner (Michael Lerner) and winds up fired. Now Sparky's ready to coach any team who'll have him. The only problem is, no one will, until the day the Russian Sports Ministry led by the delectable Tanya (Natalya Negoda) comes knocking at his door. The Russians need a baseball coach for their Olympic team, and Sparky is just the man for the job. Once on Russian soil though, he soon discovers that the Russian team is composed of athletes, hockey players, and shot putters who barely know their way around a diamond. Confronted with this losing team, hilarious comedy ensues when Sparky is told to accept an invitation to have his team visit the States and play his old team the Mariners.

Washed up actor Don Knotts shows up on the back lot of Universal Studios in Hollywood, California in hopes of landing a role in the new Disney movie, Newsies. Unfortunately director Kenny Ortega quickly dismisses Mr. Knotts and has him thrown off the lot. Mr. Knotts is quite upset by the turn of events, so decides to go on a killing spree, believing that if he can't have a role in the movie no one can. He knocks off one newsie after the next, each in a different and unique way.

The members of a San Diego Wednesday night womens' mah jongg club are five survivors of a Nazi concentration camp. They recognize the owner of a local restaurant, Walter Grossman, as a doctor from the camp who performed experiments on them as young girls. To their horror they learn that he has already been tried as a war criminal and has served but a few years for his crimes. They decide that they will "execute" him, drawing lots to determine which one will perform the act, without letting the others know who it is.

Part of the anthology series "Picture Windows," "Language of the Heart" brings Degas’ painting The Rehearsal to life in a 1920s ballet hall, where a young ballerina resists her Maestro’s advances as she falls for a violinist, setting the stage for a tale of love and ambition.

Studio head Joe Mulholland promises his dying producer and mentor, Saul Gritz, to adapt a popular sex manual into a film, despite his better judgment. Unable to figure out how to turn the nonfiction book into a narrative movie, Mulholland enlists the services of Herb Dorman, a screenwriter of popular romantic films with a bad marriage, and volatile director Sid Spokane to help him create a movie.

An unwed teen is fighting a major court battle to recover her infant daughter from adoptive parents.

Inspired by movies of Oscar nominated actress Sally Kirkland, a young writer moves to Hollywood to pursue his dreams. In a chance meeting with Sally, he begins a journey toward trying to resurrect her fading career.

Madie is a neurotic, wealthy woman who escapes from a New York state mental hospital where her unwholesome husband had her committed to avoid the trial of a expensive divorce. Madie hitches a ride back to California with a certain Charles Callahan, a debt-ridden truck driver. Madie and Charles eventually fall in love while evading an assortment of bad guys including a pair of thugs hired by Madie's husband to prevent her from returning to California, and a repo man sent to reclaim Charles' truck

A neo-Nazi Doctor tries to make a superwoman of his daughter who has been specially fed, exercised & Conditioned since she was a child to run in the Olympics.

An actor's promotional appearance at a new shopping centre is ruined when a popular rival shows up at a nearby store.

A ski instructor tries to teach a bunch of insanely eccentric people how to ski while dealing with everyone wanting his attention.

A dangerous campus radical may go free if the District Attorney's office can't locate any witnesses for the prosecution.

A young student living in Rome gets a job as a tour guide and falls in love with a young stowaway who is being sought by the police.

A professional gambler finds himself on the run from the mob, the federal government, and a band of Indians, all of whom have an interest in a piece of land he won in a poker game.

One of the most moving stories in the annals of sports is presented in this true drama documenting the love affair of baseball immortal Lou Gehrig and his wife Eleanor. Their romance spans the time period from his days of glory with Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees to his unsuccessful battle with an incurable disease. As the story begins, the talented but shy Gehrig is already a popular Yankee slugger when he meets the outgoing Eleanor. Their romance begins hesitantly, but blossoms as they exchange letters while Gehrig is on the road with the team. However, Gehrig's possessive mother becomes a formidable obstacle, first to their marriage and later to their happiness. But their love for one another proves triumphant. In the midst of their happiness, when Gehrig is at the peak of his career, he learns that he is suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The courage and dignity exhibited by the Gehrigs during this crisis make this a powerful, memorable film.

In this pilot film, a friend of Jonathan Hart's is killed in a motor accident just after he has left a health farm, apparently committing suicide. There was no warning of him being troubled so the Harts go undercover to find out what happened at the farm.

The true stories that spawned the serie tale of Damien, a small boy with an angelic face, whose very name still conjures up thoughts of Satan. This documentary shares spine-tingling information about the the all-too-memorable flick that has terrorized film audiences since 1976.

Yonkers Joe tells the story of a dice hustler whose determination to make one last grab for a big score in Vegas is complicated by the reappearance of his estranged, mentally challenged son into his life.

A series of freak accidents on the Los Angeles freeway traps a cast-load of familiar TV faces in an astounding traffic tie-up, with the entire system caught in a gridlock that John Beck, as a traffic expert, endeavors to unsnarl.

LAPD Officer Newman has not gotten the reputation of a straight arrow by avoiding conflict when fighting for right. In this police drama, his honesty is put to the test when he and his partner discover an international drug ring involving some of the department's highest ranking officers.

A comedic murder mystery set in the middle of the Cannes Film Fest. Amidst the bumbling and drama, twists and turns emerge.

A painter is accused of art-forging. He thinks his girlfriend betrayed him, so it's time for revenge.

Cowboy, a senior citizen ex-lawyer and gambler, is persuaded by his spunky seventeen year old neighbor, Rachel, to seek retribution for having been cheated in Las Vegas many years ago. So begins a wild adventure that marks a young girl's rite of passage into womanhood and an old man's bittersweet final awakening to life, love and happiness. Along for the ride is Maggie, Cowboy's salty ex-girlfriend, Buddy Boy, Cowboy's best friend, and Harold, an unusually young Vegas motel owner who falls hard for Rachel.

The passengers on a cruise ship are seized by panic when a deadly virus begins killing off passengers and crew.

The wife and mistress of the abusive headmaster of a boy's school plot and carry out his murder. They dump his body in the murky swimming pool at the school and await for it to surface. After several days, some unusual circumstances point to clues that he is not dead after all.

David can inherit his father’s vast fortune on one condition: he has to get married. The problem is he only has mere hours to find his bride-to-be.

A professional thief tries to break with his past but has to pull off one last job to pay off a gambling debt.

The story of author F. Scott Fitzgerald's two stays in Hollywood to write for films, once in 1927 at the height of his acclaim, and again in 1937 when he arrived with little money, enormous expenses and an ill wife.

When Ashok makes a surprise visit to Los Angeles to visit his estranged son, the two begin a journey to mend their relationship until Sid discovers that his father has actually come in search of an old flame. A heartfelt and humorous exploration of the ever-evolving relationship between a father and son, the women in their lives, and the powerful secrets they keep.

A TV producer with a terminal illness is given the strength to keep going by her love for her doctor.

A college president becomes the president of a record company, and finds himself enmeshed in a payola scandal.

The Shickles is an edgy comedy which explores the life and loves of an eccentric Jewish family following the death of their dearly beloved grandparents, Elroy and Nanna Shickles.

A rookie cop on the undercover narcotic squad falls for the junkie who can help him nab a ruthless pusher/killer.

An ex-child star (Judy Tenuta) tries to reclaim her former fame.

An aspiring musician is released from prison to find that a song he had written while locked up has been stolen and made into a hit record by a country music superstar. When his confrontation with the star takes a violent turn the ex-con has to go back on the run, but he finds an unexpected ally in a shrewd background singer with a plan to turn the tables in his favor.